Mad Couture Catwalk

A unique performance and party featuring a runway-style show of wearable couture by Workman Arts artists will challenge norms, shift boundaries and inspire dialogue about mental illness and creativity.

Featuring new creations by eleven Workman artists, made under the creative eye of artist-educator Elena Soni, this event showcases 33 wearable pieces.

Ticket price includes presentation and reception.

Presented in partnership with Workman Arts

Artists

Stephanie Creede is a graduate of both U of T's Art History and Fine Artprograms (Visual Studies and Culture). She creates mixed media acrylic work using techniques of collage/bricolage/assemblage with elements of found objects and paper crafting. Her collages feature evocative images and text juxtaposing war, industrial works, disasters and the female form.She strives to evoke a sense of violence and drama, fearlessness, bravery in the face of struggle, power, strength and hope.

Catherine Jones is a Toronto-based photographer and collage artist committed to both traditional darkroom and digital techniques. Her work explores themes of trauma, memory and the body. Through the use of found text and imagery, anatomical drawings and childhood photographs, she investigates the fragmentation that is a key component of trauma and memory. She has exhibited in Toronto, Ireland and New York City.

Barbara Greene Mann has an MFA graduate degree in printmaking from Wayne State University (1973) and is a founding member of the Tribes of the Cass Corridor, Detroit. She is a prolific artist who paints from memory and imagination. In her current work she seeks inspiration from current global issues to portray her personal inventions to solve world problems. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States and Europe. Most recently she has participated in the Herstarical exhibit in New York City.

Peter Mulcair is a professional fine art and commercial photographer who is interested in nature and our environment. His seeks to reflect and express his moods through portraits of trees, plants and animals. His work has been exhibited at Scotiabank CONTACT Photography and Nuit Blanche festivals as well as the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite at Queen’s Park in Toronto, and is held in private and institutional collections.

Sheri Ranger is a self-taught Toronto-based artist who works in mixed media, print making, clay sculpture, video and most recently, textiles. Exploring themes of addiction, mental health and community, her works are thought-provoking, emotionally charged and aim to entice the viewer. Sheri has participated in numerous community arts projects with the Barbara Schlifer Clinic, Parkdale Community Health Centre, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and YWCA. Her work is part of many private collections and has been exhibited around the Greater Toronto Area at Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario events, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts, Workman Arts events, and local galleries & cafes.

Annette Seip graduated with an MSc from McMaster University before turning her talents to photography and digital art. Her award-winning photography studies the relationship between order and chaos, isolation and connectedness, and light and darkness. She has exhibited in juried and solo art shows in Mississauga and Toronto, including Britain Street Gallery, Queen Gallery, Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Visual Arts Mississauga, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, CONTACT Photography Festival, the Royal Ontario Museum and Cooper's Fine Art Gallery for Touched by Fire. R.M. Vaughan described Annette’s Ice Diamond in the Globe and Mail as “a photograph so dappled with liquid light, it could be mistaken for a Mary Pratt painting.”

HMS Skycastle is a self-taught artist who has been mentored by the artists RonaldSatok and Fiona Smyth. His work is fantastical and mysterious, revealing a menagerie of creatures, landscapes to be explored and stories to tell. He works in paper mache, super sculpey and drawing mediums. He has won the Youthlineand Identify N’ Impact awards for contribution to community arts.

Susan Berthelot Spagnuolo is a Toronto-based artist working in photography and mixed media. She enjoys recycling materials, reinvention and challenging norms. Her work has been exhibited during Scotiabank’s CONTACT Photography Festival and Nuit Blanche, as well as at the Propeller Centre for Visual Arts, Hart House, and the Gladstone Hotel.

Jace Traz makes visible art with pens, paint and plastic. He makes audible art with strings, sticks and sara. His works are held in private and institutional collections. Most recently his work appeared on the prime time television show Risky Business. He is also currently writing and performing with his band “All Dressed”.

Annalise Walmeris a multidisciplinary artist, musician and writer who explores themes of identity, isolation, feminism and effects of trauma. Formally trained as a graphic artist, she works mainly with found objects and describes herself as “an urban archaeologist”. Her work has been exhibited at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (2009-2011), Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (2003, 2008), and Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts. Her artworks are owned by private Canadian collectors.

Lisa Walter is a multi-faceted artist, educator, and journalist who lives and works in Toronto. Her first full-length play, Difference of Latitude, was published in an anthology by Canadian Playwrights Press in 2005. She has been exhibiting her visual art since 2010, including two works for Nuit Blanche, and participated as a visual and media artist with Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival in 2010 and 2011. The Globe and Mail has described her work as "delicate and unsparing." Lisa is the 2011 - 2012 Visual Artist in Residence at Workman Arts.

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